The research collaboration with Janssen is for two years with the option to extend. The project is currently in the development/preclinical stage. The agreement includes an option for an exclusive license under patents owned by Stony Brook.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The vaccine, developed by Dr. Eckard Wimmer and Dr. Jeronimo Cello, is an alternative method of preventing poliomyelitis, different from the oral vaccination and an injected form, both of which have drawbacks, according to Cello.

The oral method, used by the United States until roughly 15 years ago, has a small potential to cause polio in those vaccinated because it contains a trace amount of the virus. The injected method uses an inactive strain, but is still developed in labs using the active virus, meaning if it were to get out, it could cause an outbreak.

The new vaccine developed at Stony Brook uses an inactivated, seed form of polio that is much less contagious and would not cause outbreaks, Cello said.

While cases of polio has fallen by more than 99 percent since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 by the World Health Organization, the disease, which causes crippling and even death, still persists in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2012, there were 222 confirmed cases of polio.

Cello said he and Wimmer have developed the vaccine for one of three strains of polio and will now be working on the other tw0 as a result of the deal with Janssen. Actual commercialization of the product will likely not occur for five years, he said.